The 34 floor Hyatt Regency I stayed had what I call a ‘smart elevator’ system. I wheeled my luggage to the elevator, after an extremely easy check in process. There, I did not see the standard up/down touch pad. Thus began my UX design adventure in the Hyatt. The only possible choice was a touch screen pad off to the side. At the pad, there were 6 button looking choices, none of which immediately made sense. But, my only logical choice was the one labeled ‘guest rooms’. I pushed that one and it returned a 2nd screen of floor choices.

After selecting my floor, 32, it too-quickly flashed another screen with instructions on it. It took another two go arounds before I realized that the 5 elevators were labeled ‘A’ through ‘E’, and the screen was telling me which elevator would take me to my floor. Once I got it, it was extremely easy. Never once did I wait more than a minute for my elevator. In fact, the elevator was almost always an immediate arrival. It was rare that the elevator car had more than us in it, even though there were always people in the lobby using the system.

Change, Learning Curve, & Positive Results

This new, to me, elevator system and its short learning curve had me thinking about change, UX design, and user experience in a much broader sense. Using the elevator’s new system had a very short learning curve, as does using a freshly redesigned website. Being in the website UX design business, I am aware of what must have gone into this departure from the norm on elevator design. The elevator manufacturer took time to evaluate an established expectation. Then, with the mindset of making it better and faster for the user, they improved the experience.

In the case of the hotel, guests want to get to their room. In the case of a website, they want to find out specific info. Invariably, they want to get to their destination in the quickest way possible. The path to one’s goal needs to be clearly marked. But no matter how clear, the very first approach will have a learning curve.

The goal of the user experience professional is to minimize the time a brand new user needs to achieve their specific goal(s). In the case of the elevator pad, it took me about 15 seconds of focused attention the very first approach to complete my task. I definitely had to read the instructions and use my logic to figure it out. However, once I did, I marveled at the genius and simplicity of the smart elevator system. Future elevator rides took a second to enable, with always a very quick elevator wait.

The best way to discern how your website can be set up to be used as easily as possible, is to study your typical customer, to best understand how & why they use your service.

Steps to Improve UX Design & Experience

When a website is designed with the user’s value in mind the end results are, increased credibility & customer satisfaction, and improved conversions. How we approach a better user experience with a reduced initial learning is with great persona development, use case scenarios, and user testing. For a continual improvement loop, we would add feedback & implementation into the cycle.

Persona Development

The best way to make your website’s important information as easily found and used as possible, is to study your typical customer. Briefly, to define your persona profile, you list the qualities of your stereotypical customer. In the instance of the Hyatt Regency, that person might be described as:

Business traveler

Advanced Degree/Education

Male

Multi-lingual

Technologically savvy

Athletic

Too 10% wealth

‘Time is money’ mindset

We would create personas for a high-achieving website as well, perhaps adding a name and nationality, to give our persona a personality. Then list what specific tasks our fictitious user/visitor might regularly want to achieve to create your use case scenarios.

Use Case Scenarios

Defining commonly performed tasks and how a person achieves these tasks begets your use case scenarios. We would then ‘walk through’ each task trying to eliminate unnecessary steps or friction points, with the goal of eliminating or reducing these pain points. We might plot or chart them for visual cues on what can be improved upon. In the case of the website, we want to reduce clicks to getting a street address for your doctor’s closest office, the customer service/complaint form for the airline, or the request for consultation. In the case of the Hyatt Regency, a system for getting guests to their room incredibly efficiently.

User Testing

User testing is where we can confirm our user experience design as fine as is. Or, does it require change for an even better user experience. Essentially, we bring actual users into the mix. Users will perform specific functions while we watch them. We note any spots in the process that can be problematic and therefore improved. Improvements of our website happens in a iterative improvement cycle.

In the case of the elevator, once I was in the car, there were only open and close buttons. Along the side of the door was a digital display noting the floors the car would stop. The smart programming made stops incredibly efficient for people using the elevator. My time spent waiting for, and riding in, an elevator was greatly reduced. The reduced stress in waiting for the elevator was not left unnoticed. While such a minor item, these types of niceties added up and left me with a lasting positive impression of my stay at the Hyatt Regency.

The goal of the UX design professional is to make your visitors stay (hotel or website) as easy and stress free as possible. Doing so, builds continual goodwill and higher visitor return rates.

]]>Follow these four online reputation management (ORM) rules and you’ll be set.

Actively Monitor Your Online Status

There are plenty of social media sites other than Facebook and Twitter, so keep tabs on them all. You should perform regular searches on your name to keep tabs on what people are saying about you or your brand.

Always be as Responsive as Possible

When you receive a review or a comment on social media (good, bad, or neutral) respond very quickly. People expect quick a turn-around on their comments or requests. Even if you don’t have the answer, acknowledge them. If you are posting content, always reply to anyone who comments. Your goal should be to cultivate a relationship.

Ask for Reviews – They Matter

Online reviews are very important within the buying cycle. So ask your customers for their reviews. People will give reviews if asked. Google and Yelp reviews are especially helpful because they show up in search engine results. The best way to get reviews is to send a followup email to your customers. Make sure your email gives a link to make it easy for your customer to add their review.

Don’t Panic! Transparency is Important

Trying to cover up the truth can be the worse thing you can do. Be honest and patient. Admit your mistakes. If someone complains on social media, don’t delete the comment, but respond to it. People know that everyone makes mistake, it’s how you handle them that makes or breaks you. Any response other than a direct one can cause a situation to spiral out of control.

Analytics is all about using your business data to drive website effectiveness improvement. Proper understanding and implementation of Google analytics offers important feedback for continuous improvement in achieving your business goals from your website or other online property such as mobile applications. Of primary importance is choosing which data to use and and how you use your data. Understanding your key performance indicators (KPIs) is be the first step to your success. Understanding what you want to measure, measuring it, and then analyzing your data drives ongoing improvement. This is an iterative or continuous improvement process or loop.

Website Improvement Starts with Defining Business Goals

In order to understand what data is relevant you first must define your online business goals or KPIs. It all starts here, with your business objectives. Knowing what you’re trying to achieve is fundamental to actually obtaining that achievement. This may seem obvious to you, however let me ask you how often you’ve gone to a website looking for specific information, but are not able to find it? A common example might be that new restaurant you want to visit but can’t seem to find its address on their website. Or that new accountant you heard about who doesn’t have easy access their telephone number on their website. These businesses didn’t ask the question ‘what are we trying to achieve on our website’ first. Knowing your business goals drives much better results. If your goal is to make it easy for potential customers to find your place of business or to call you, you will put this information on your site so that it is easily found. It sounds easy and it is, or can be if you have simple business goals. But you first must ask the question, what are the goals of my business’s website? Use the answers to guide the strategic design of your website.

The Analytics Key:
A Goal Must be Measurable, Specific, and Obtainable

But it doesn’t end here. In order to determine if your website is successful, your goals must be measurable.

In our next business scenario, after careful analysis your team has determined that a specific product has great profit margins and you want to ‘boost sales’ of this specific product.

It’s critical to your success for your goals to be much more exact. The statement ‘boost sales’ is too general. A goal must measurable, specific, and obtainable. A goal that meets our requirements would sound more like:

Improve sales of x product by 10% each month, over the next 6 months. Sales should increase from 50 units per month to 55 units per month.

Stating your business objective in this manner offers clear metrics in which to base your success. In working towards your goal, you might choose to put cool new imagery and copy on your home page touting this product, with a call to action pointing to more details. The detail page would offer added information with a clear path to purchase. This works the same for services.

Key to your continuous improvement process is documenting everything. Note your current sales levels and the specific changes made. What is the exact text used and what are the colors of your call to action buttons. At the end of your designated timeline, let’s say one week or month, record your results. If you make any changes like changing the call to action button, record this. Watch your analytics for your steady improvement or any trends.

Use your analytics to inform your website changes.

Goal Setting is Just the Start to Better Websites

Knowing your online business goals is very important to achieving online success, but it’s not the only thing. Other important elements of a successful website are:

Understanding your customer’s and their needs or pain points

Understanding your customer’s language

Performing regular competitive analysis

Optimizing your technical environment

It’s analytics that pulls it all together and gives us the information to better our sites. Without analytics we would not know what to change. Analytics allows for the continuous improvement. But it all starts with understanding and acting on your business goals.

]]>On Saturday October 15, 2016 Annie Wolock presented her approach for creating effective websites at Ann Arbor’s WordCamp. Her 15 minute lightning talk relayed the questions one asks to improve findability (on-page SEO), conversion ratios, and retention rates. This was a 30,000 ft overview of the discovery process for either designing or redesigning a website.

Over the past 20 plus years Annie has refined her discovery phase for creating websites and is now integral to the ongoing continuous improvement cycle for the websites Keystone manages. Discovery for websites is important whether it is for a brand new website, a redesign, or within an on-going web maintenance plan. At Keystone we ask series of questions leading to improved and effective websites that meet business goals.

Her multi-faceted approach delves into:

Online business goals. Documenting your online business goals is critical. Your online goals will constantly evolve as they are met. Goals should be measurable, specific, attainable, specific, and in writing.

Persona development. It’s important to understand your customers. We want to know what’s important to them in their own words. We want to know their pain points, as well as what makes them satisfied. Important info includes demographics such as male/female, age, and education. Methods for unearthing this information includes talking to your sales force, customer service, or technical support to find out common questions or themes.

Linguistic study. Using the words of your customers gives you credibility as well as better SEO. It’s that simple. Perform your linguistic study!

Competitive analysis. Knowing what your online and brick and mortar customers are doing is power. It’s wise to perform a competitive analysis one or two times per year. The real question is, how are you determining who your competitors are?

Technical analysis. This is about understanding your page load time and whether your code is properly optimized, as well as other technical facets. There are a number of online resources to help you understand what’s going on with your website. Google analytics is a great resource for determining page speed. If you’re finding your site slow, you can also call your server admin people and find out if there is a server problem or if you might be better off on a different server.

Analytics review & tracking. Analytics closes the loop on your continuous website improvement process. We use analytics to set benchmarks on our key performance indicators (KPI) as well as a tool for discovery.

This presentation was a consolidation of her longer seminar/workshop. This overview got right to the point and spoke to the questions you should be asking, the (KPI) you should be tracking, and how to find out the answers.

Keystone Media (Ann Arbor, MI) has offered Google Adwords services to clients for over a decade.

Annie Wolock, owner of Keystone Media says: “We’ve always loved working with Google Adwords. It’s a perfect way to solve an immediate website traffic problem. Adwords is a great solution for those times when companies need to gain quick traction in the market place. It’s a perfect way to fill the time gap from when a new web page or product is launched and when search engines index your web page so organic traffic clicks start. Adwords is also great for building brand awareness. I love Google Adwords for its sheer power. I love it so much, I decided to marry it, in the form of getting Adwords certified.”

Now that Annie is certified… Keystone Media becomes a qualified Google Partner. Our Google Partnership allows that we have demonstrable, advanced knowledge of Google Adwords advertising products. We’ve delivered results and have built long-lasting relationships with our clients. This partnership allows us access to free training and support.

Contact us for information on how Keystone Media can help you with your digital marketing needs.

]]>https://www.keystonemedia.net/2016/08/01/keystone-media-google-partner-adwords-certified/feed/0771Keystone Media is NEF Featured Stakeholder Memberhttps://www.keystonemedia.net/2016/07/11/keystone-media-is-nef-featured-stakeholder-member/
https://www.keystonemedia.net/2016/07/11/keystone-media-is-nef-featured-stakeholder-member/#respondMon, 11 Jul 2016 16:43:50 +0000http://www.keystonemedia.net/?p=759Keystone Media has been selected the New Enterprise Forum’s (NEF) featured Stakeholder member for July 2016. The NEF mission is to link entrepreneurs with management expertise, joint venture partners, business… read more →

]]>Keystone Media has been selected the New Enterprise Forum’s (NEF) featured Stakeholder member for July 2016.

The NEF mission is to link entrepreneurs with management expertise, joint venture partners, business services, capital, and other critical resources. The NEF is comprised of business professionals with a passion around helping entrepreneurs succeed.

NEF holds monthly forums where entrepreneurs present potential investment opportunities. These presenters have been through the NEF coaching process. This month’s showcase presenter is True Job.

NEF meetings also include a Shark Tank style pitch pit where rookies compete for prizes.

As the feature stakeholder member, Annie Wolock will present a 5 minute overview on how Keystone Media works within the the entrepreneurial community.

NEF Meeting Info

]]>https://www.keystonemedia.net/2016/07/11/keystone-media-is-nef-featured-stakeholder-member/feed/0759Keystone Redesigns CPI Data Websitehttps://www.keystonemedia.net/2016/06/06/keystone-redesigns-cpi-data-website/
https://www.keystonemedia.net/2016/06/06/keystone-redesigns-cpi-data-website/#respondMon, 06 Jun 2016 18:40:23 +0000http://www.keystonemedia.net/?p=749Keystone Media announces the launch of a newly redesigned website for CPI Data. The new CPI Data website is the second website Keystone has designed for them. The new responsive… read more →

]]>Keystone Media announces the launch of a newly redesigned website for CPI Data. The new CPI Data website is the second website Keystone has designed for them. The new responsive website is built within a customize WordPress framework. Keystone services included website marketing strategy, design, development, and SEO groundwork.

CPI Data was motivated to improve their online presence with a responsive, modern, and cleaner information architecture. These improvements will make it easier for CPI Data customers to quickly find the information they are seeking on all devices – desktops, tablets, and smart phones.

CPI Data is a world-class global provider of business process outsourcing. CPI has been in business since 1998 and provides knowledgeable business process solutions including:

Data Capture

Online/Offline Search and Index

Document ID and Segregation

OCR/ICR Verification

Redaction

eCommerce Data Optimization

Keystone Media is very proud of the new CPI website. It’s a great example of B2B website strategy. If you are interested in finding out how Keystone Media can help improve your business’s digital marketing strategy, please contact us for a free consultation.

It costs at least five times more attract new ones less than to retain current customers. This has never been more true than within online commerce. Your customer’s online experiences can make or break it for your online sales. The session will speak to tactics and strategies that will improve your website’s visitor’s experience, driving higher sales. From the simple to the complex, this presentation is sure to offer website stakeholders solid insights. We’ll explore:

Creating positive online customer experiences

Uncovering and addressing your customer’s experiences

The sales funnel

After the sale

If you’re able to join us and have any specific questions or areas you’d like addressed, please contact Annie Wolock.

]]>https://www.keystonemedia.net/2016/04/08/retaining-growing-your-customer-base-through-user-experience-ux/feed/0726Marriage Equality Achieves Top Google Keyword Ranking for State Of Michiganhttps://www.keystonemedia.net/2016/01/15/keyword-ranking/
https://www.keystonemedia.net/2016/01/15/keyword-ranking/#respondFri, 15 Jan 2016 20:35:13 +0000http://www.keystonemedia.net/?p=686Keystone Media was selected by the National Marriage Challenge, Dec. 2014, to raise awareness (and funds) for the DeBoer v Snyder legal case. This was one of the lead court cases… read more →

]]>Keystone Media was selected by the National Marriage Challenge, Dec. 2014, to raise awareness (and funds) for the DeBoer v Snyder legal case. This was one of the lead court cases argued in front of the Supreme Court of the United States in April 2015, with the ruling in June 2015 that brought marriage equality to all Americans.

Our own statistics showed that our campaign was incredibly successful in raising awareness and funds by:

Email campaign. Keystone Media created a well constructed and aggressive email campaign forfundraising and events

Tweeting. Regular tweeting works!

Facebook posts. We created tremendous engagement on Facebook

A great Google Adwords campaign. Ask us about Google’s non-profit grants for adword campaigns. It’s an interesting story and a blog article all onto itself.

Now we have unbiased proof! Estately conducted a survey of what people Googled most in their specific state. In Michigan the term was ‘Marriage Equality’! This was our number one keyword phrase! Keystone Media is extremely proud of our part in this successful campaign.

]]>https://www.keystonemedia.net/2016/01/15/keyword-ranking/feed/0686Twitter Polls are Easy to Usehttps://www.keystonemedia.net/2015/11/12/twitter-polls-are-easy-to-use/
https://www.keystonemedia.net/2015/11/12/twitter-polls-are-easy-to-use/#respondThu, 12 Nov 2015 23:26:46 +0000http://www.keystonemedia.net/?p=663Twitter’s New Polling Feature If you are looking for a different and very easy tool to engage your customers, give it a try! Late last month Twitter rolled out their… read more →

If you are looking for a different and very easy tool to engage your customers, give it a try!

Late last month Twitter rolled out their new polling platform allowing anyone to create a poll about anything – as long as you make it a 2 option poll. Once you’ve created your poll, it remains active for 24 hours. How folks vote is not open to the public. This could be a really great tool for community engagement.

Here’s How to Create Your Twitter Poll

It’s a pretty simple process. You start by simply clicking to write a new tweet. In the bottom middle there is a button to start a poll. Click on it.